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Category: Philip K Dick

I’ve been reading more of Philip K. Dick’s stories lately. Mostly his short stories, but also The Man in the High Castle. Thinking about Dick’s stories, my impressions of Arizona are filtered through the lens of historicity.

What is the “authentic” Arizona experience? Is it one steeped in history, or that which reflects the current reality?

The Phoenix Skyharbour Airport is similar to most other airports in North America: security checkpoints, slow moving lines, and long distances between where you are and where you need to be. It’s not until I was on the shuttle to pick up a rental car that I was exposed to the external environment. As expected, it’s hot. It’s dry. It’s very different from home. Yet the same sun sets over Arizona as does here.Continue reading Authentic American History: Arizona

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Philip K. Dick’s works have been quite popular for film adaptations, starting with Blade Runner, an adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? starring Harrison Ford in 1982. Sadly, Dick died from a stroke four months before the film was released. Total Recall followed in 1990, based of Dick’s story “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale”, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Screamers, based on the short story “Second Variety” was released in 1995, starring Peter Weller. Minority Report, based on the short story of the same name, was released in 2002, starring Tom Cruise. A smaller film, Imposter was released in 2002, starring Gary Sinise and Vincent D’Onofrio, based on a short story of the same name. The Ben Affleck movie Paycheck was released in 2003, continuing the more recent trends to leave the name the same. In 2007, Nicolas Cage starred in Next, a loose adapation of Dick’s short story “The Golden Man”.

Before Next was A Scanner Darkly. While I have a particular fondness for Blade Runner, it’s more clearly an adaptation than Scanner, which stays much closer to the novel. The movie is rotoscoped, each frame was originally shot on film with the cast, including Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder and Rory Cochane.

This is not the first of Richard Linklater’s films to do so, he previously directed A Waking Life, which was done in a similar – albeit simplified – style. The visual style of the film is in a very large part what makes this such a compelling adaptation.

The story follows Bob Arctor/Fred, a junkie/undercover narc undergoing a steady drug-induced dissociate identity disorder. A combination of the drug, Substance D, and his dual roles as dealer and undercover agent cause him to lose his grip on reality. Particularly important is the so called “scramble suit” in which Arctor “cannot be identified by voice, or by even technological voiceprint, or by appearance” as it renders him “like a vague blur and nothing more”.

The breakdown of reality in the story is perfectly suited to the visual style. The rotoscoping of the film acts in many ways like the scramble suit, carefully masking the reality beneath. Both of these effects are of course substituting for the “mors ontologica”, the death of the subject experienced by those addicted to the drug Substance D.

Both the novel and the movie treat an important issue, as relevant in today’s society as it was in 1977. It’s in many ways one of the most humanizing of Dick’s stories, and is clearly based on very personal events in his life. The story is one of my favourites, and I think the film is a very worthy adaptation.

I really didn’t know much about Butler’s book before ordering it, but it does look interesting. Butler covers each of Dick’s novels in chronological order. Although listed by their published names, Butler includes any working titles, the dates associated with the writing and editing of the works, and where it was originally published. In covering the stories he provides a brief synopsis, what other Dickian works it draws upon, any Dickian archetypal characters it uses, a list of recurring ideas in the work, as well as a brief note on subtextual items. Each entry is then finished with a rating out of five. A few of Dick’s more well known short stories are also reviewed. It looks to be a useful book for cross-referencing themes between Dick’s novels. The Pocket Essential Philip K. Dick isn’t exactly what I was expecting, but looks to be worthwhile.

I’ll review Seed’s companion at a later time, once I’ve had a chance to review it in detail.

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The University of Waterloo is sadly lacking in science fiction literature courses. The only course offered is English 208B, which does provide a good introduction to the field of science fiction in literature. Sadly, it is just an introductory course. It has a very high enrollment, from multiple disciplines. There may have been more engineering and physics students in the course than English majors.

Since there are no further courses offered by the English Department at Waterloo, I’m preparing a “Selected Reading” course. This is an independent study course, supervised by a member of the faculty. I’ve been working with Assistant Professor Aimée Morrison on the content of a course studying the work of Philip K Dick. The primary texts I will be studying will be